Russians Attack Chechen Rebels in Mountain Strongholds

By CELESTINE BOHLEN

Published: December 28, 1999

MOSCOW, Dec. 27—
In another day of furious street fighting in Chechnya's capital city, Russian forces made halting progress today. But they stepped up attacks on guerrilla strongholds to the south where many of the rebel fighters have fled.

The assault on the capital, Grozny, has been taking place in piecemeal fashion as Russian troops probe the city's outer neighborhoods, dodging land mines and trading artillery fire with guerrillas holed up in trenches and basements.

Tens of thousands of civilians remain trapped in the city, without heat or electricity and in fear for their lives. Federal authorities said their safe exit could no longer be guaranteed as the long-awaited assault on Grozny got under way last weekend.

No large tank units have yet entered the city, federal military spokesmen said today. But reporters inside Grozny said street battles were taking place, with clashes between federal forces and a special Chechen squad, known as the Wolves, reported in a southwestern neighborhood.

The Chechen president, Aslan Maskhadov, vowed that his rebel fighters would defend Grozny to the last man.

Bislan Guntemirov, a former mayor of Grozny who has joined the federal forces, said today that his Chechen militiamen had taken control of the northwestern district of Staropromyslovskya and would now move on to the city center.

But a Russian news agency said sources close to Mr. Guntemirov, a convicted embezzler released from federal prison in the early days of the war, were less optimistic after clashing with rebel fighters. The agency quoted the Chechen militiamen as saying such furious resistance had surprised them.

A report on NTV, a privately owned Russian television network, said the battle would soon move to Garibaldi Street, where the Chechen rebels have set up a fortified line of defense, cordoning off the city center.

The Russian military said today that only four federal soldiers -- three Russians and one Chechen -- had been killed inside Grozny, while Chechen rebel leaders said hundreds of Russian soldiers had been killed. Neither account could be verified given the sketchy reporting available from the war zone itself.

''Except for war, there is nothing here,'' one Russian officer was quoted as saying by NTV, which showed pictures of federal forces camped out in trenches seized from the rebels.

Western governments have harshly criticized Russia's conduct of the war, which the United States deputy secretary of state, Strobe Talbott, said last week violated international norms.

After a meeting today with President Boris N. Yeltsin, the Russian foreign minister, Igor S. Ivanov, said the West's disagreement over the Chechen war should not be overdramatized. ''Our main task for 2000 is not to allow increased influence of those forces which seek to isolate Russia, using Chechnya as a pretext,'' he said.

In a New Year's greeting to President Clinton, Mr. Yeltsin agreed that Russia's relations with the United States had not been easy during the last year, and noted that no small effort had been required to keep cooperation between the two countries on track.

The Russian Ministry of Defense said today that 465 federal troops had been killed in fighting in the Caucasus region, which began in August when Russia attacked Chechen guerrilla fighters who had invaded the neighboring region of Dagestan. By October the war, which Moscow continues to call an antiterrorist operation, had spread to Chechnya, where federal forces moved quickly to occupy the region's northern half.

Now, as Russian commanders press for a decisive victory in a war that so far has had broad public support, federal forces have kept up a strong offensive against rebel strongholds in the southern mountain region, with heavy fighting reported in the areas around Karachoi and Vedeno.

Sergei Zhuk, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, said today that the battle for Grozny was not as significant as the offensive in southern Chechnya. ''Grozny will soon be mopped up but it is not the matter of primary concern for us,'' Mr. Zhuk told The Associated Press. ''The most important thing for the federal troops is the southern direction, as the majority of the rebels went there.''

According to news reports, Russian warplanes were dropping aerosol, or incendiary bombs, which release clouds of inflammable gases and cause large explosions, as they tried to flush out the rebel fighters from caves and bunkers in the southern mountains.

NTV reported tonight that the offensive had destroyed most of the rebels' arms depots and that the guerrillas were being driven deeper into the mountains.

After a meeting in the Kremlin with President Boris N. Yeltsin today, the Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir V. Putin, whose popularity has soared because of his conduct of the war, said that the military offensive was going according to plan.

''We are doing what we promised we would do,'' Mr. Putin said.

In an interview published today in a Moscow newspaper, Evening Moscow, Mr. Maskhadov said that Russia would never be able to claim victory in Chechnya. ''Let's say the federal forces will take Grozny,'' he said. ''Let's say the Russian forces will also manage to take the mountain border. What is next?''

Reminding the Russian generals of their defeat in the 1994-1996 Chechen war, he said that the federal forces could be bosses in Chechnya only in those places where their forces were concentrated.

Even Gudermes, Chechnya's second largest city, where Russian forces moved in without a fight, cannot be considered to be under Russian control, Mr. Maskhadov said. ''Have no doubt,'' he said. ''If necessary we will enter this city again.''

As for Grozny, Mr. Maskhadov said the fight there would go to the bitter end. ''You can imagine the mood among the majority of fighting Chechens,'' he said. ''They are ready to fight as long as needed and in any conditions.''

Photos: Russian soldiers loading shells into their tank on the outskirts of Grozny, Chechnya's capital. Street fighting continued in Grozny yesterday. (Agence France-Presse); A family returning to Chechnya from Ingushetia at a checkpoint near the village of Sleptsovskaya yesterday. (Associated Press) Map of Chechnya: Russian troops made halting progress in Grozny yesterday.